Most religion-mongers have bated their paradises with a bit of toasted cheese. They have tempted the body with large promises of possessions in their transmortal El Dorado. Sancho Panza will not quit his chimney-corner, but under promise of imaginary islands to govern.

There is no work of genius which has not been the delight of mankind, no word of genius to which the human heart and soul have not sooner or later responded.

He who keeps his faith only, cannot be discrowned.

To put more faith in lies and hate than truth and love, is the true atheism.

It is the privilege of genius that life never grows common place, as it does for the rest of us.

Heaven is neither here nor there to me. Everywhere and nowhere. Just not in between, But I believe in Heaven.

Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.